Top 20 Greatest Hits: Hamlet & the Bible

Below are some of my most essential posts about biblical echoes in Shakespeare, most of them beyond those listed by Naseeb Shaheen & predecessors (Biblical References in Shakespeare's Plays, which focuses mostly on explicit biblical name- and verse-allusion).

A description of my book project is included at the very end.

This is not intended to replace Naseeb Shaheen's reference book, but to compliment it, especially with plot echoes that are less explicit and may have been more thoroughly internalized by the writer, or used in more subtle ways for artistic or political reasons.

Most of these are short reads, especially early in the list, with a few longer posts toward the end, and a few of them including links for more details.

I've tried to illustrate all of these with paintings and drawings from Shakespeare's time or earlier in most instances. Where credits for the images are missing here, see the link for each section.

On the one hand, a part of me might like to believe that at least a few of these allusions or plot echoes are original insights I've stumbled upon. On the other hand, I'd like to believe that others in the past few centuries have also noticed the same things. In some cases, I have not found writings that note them. This doesn't mean they are not out there: I am merely a Creative Writing MFA who came relatively late in life to Shakespeare studies, so there is a great deal I may have missed.

But for the last few years I've tried to do as much reading as I can on religious and biblical influences in Hamlet, and I have not yet come across references to some of these by other scholars, except as noted at the links below. If you know of scholarly writing that makes similar connections which I have missed, please let me know in the comments below this post, or below the posts listed at the links below.

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On Hamlet's Sea-Voyage as a Jonah theme:
1. Both Jonah and Hamlet have prophetic souls and head west on a boat, away from their prophetic calling.
2. Both of them have a sense of trouble while at sea (Jonah with a storm, Hamlet with a sense of foreboding).
3. Both of them voluntarily leave the boat to try to save the others (Jonah to appease the anger of God and calm the storm, Hamlet to fight the pirates).
4. Both of them change mode of transportation mid-sea (Jonah swallowed by a fish, Hamlet swallowed by a pirate ship).
5. Both of them have a religious reawakening during this interim time (in the fish or on the pirate boat) relating to God or "Providence."
6. Both of them are returned east by this new mode of transportation, which brings them back to where they can fulfill their prophetic destinies.

There are also, certainly, key differences: Jonah is running from God's call for him to be a prophet; Hamlet is being sent, against his will, by Claudius. But the trip to England was part of the old source tales from Saxo Grammaticus and Beleforest, so it seems that trip (longer in the sources) is being refashioned into a Jonah diversion from a prophetic destiny.

Many like Eleanor Prosser (Hamlet and Revenge) notice that a change comes over Hamlet after the sea-voyage, but few speak of parallels with the Jonah tale.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-ghost-of-jonah-haunts-hamlet.html

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On Meeting a Stranger (Gravedigger) in the Graveyard as an Emmaus Parallel:

Emmaus gospel:
Two disciples (D) on road to Emmaus (E)
meet a stranger they don't recognize at first,
but later recognize by way of an action that took place at the last supper (breaking bread).

Hamlet:
Two Danes (D) on road to Elsinore (E)
meet a stranger, a gravedigger whom
they do not at first recognize as significant,
until he tells them how he was figuratively baptized in wine by Yorick, a man of "infinite Jest." This relates to key actions at the last supper.

(Besides the breaking of bread, the pouring and sharing of wine was another key last supper action, as well as washing of feet: Peter said, "Wash all of me.")

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/05/emmaus-in-hamlet-in-emmaus-story-1.html


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On the Nunnery Scene and its Echo of Suzannah & the Corrupt Judges:

Biblical Suzannah tale from Daniel: Two corrupt judges eavesdrop on a married woman bathing, who they will blackmail with a lie about how she met with her lover.

Hamlet:
Two corrupt Danish leaders (Claudius & Polonius) eavesdrop on (betrothed? almost all the holy vows of heaven?) Ophelia, as she speaks with her betrothed (perhaps former lover?)

Some scholars (like Katherine Goodland and Ruben Espinoza) notice that Polonius wants Ophelia to appear like the Virgin Mary reading a book of psalms at the moment of the Annunciation, as depicted in famous paintings or in prayer books. But except for Frank Ardolino (who notices the Suzannah parallel in The Spanish Tragedy, but not in Hamlet) I have not yet found others who notice the Suzannah echo in the nunnery scene of Hamlet.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/02/ophelia-elizabeth-i-suzannah-jephthahs.html

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Multiple Echoes of Lazarus & the Rich Man (including "the owl was a baker's daughter"):

Poison made the king's skin "lazar-like":

Gospel tale: The beggar Lazarus is ignored by an ungenerous rich man;
they both die, and Lazarus goes to heaven while the rich man goes to hell.

The baker's daughter (in the tale referred to by Ophelia) was ungenerous when Jesus came to their door disguised as beggar; she is punished by being changed into an owl which says, "Who?" - who is it really at the door? Just some random beggar? or Jesus disguised as one of "the least of these"? (More than any other character in Hamlet, the prince is described—by himself or others—as poor, beggar, or begging).

At her grave, Laertes implies Ophelia will be like Lazarus in heaven, a "ministering angel," while "churlish priest" is like the rich man, "howling" in hell.

Horatio compared Hamlet to Lazarus, referencing the Lazarus-related text of the requiem mass: "flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

Other scholars have noticed "lazar" as a reference to Lazarus and the sores on his skin licked by dogs, and also the reference by Horatio to that part of the Requiem mass that is based on Lazarus & Dives.

Few explicitly identify what Laertes says at Ophelia's grave as an echo of the Lazarus tale,
or Ophelia's remark ("they say the owl was a baker's daughter") as a reference to a folktale that is basically a retelling (with a twist) of the Lazarus tale.

In his 1917 book, The Riddles of Hamlet and the Newest Answers, Simon Augustine Blackmore recognizes that Ophelia may use the tale of the Baker's daughter to reflect on her rejection of the beggar Hamlet, but does not identify the folktale as a retelling of the Lazarus-Rich Man tale. 

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-ghost-of-lazarus-haunts-hamlet.html

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Dark Transfiguration Haunts Hamlet's Meeting with Ghost:

Gospel transfiguration:
Jesus and disciples go to mountain;
Jesus is transfigured, appears with Moses & Elijah.

Hamlet:
Hamlet and two others (Horatio & Marcellus) go to see the ghost;
Hamlet is darkly transfigured.

Or this scene is like Moses, who receives the law on tablets;
Hamlet receives the ghost's command to avenge his death, and will remember, he claims, removing all else from the tables of his memory.

Other scholars have made these connections, including Julia Reinhard Lupton who makes the Moses connection.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/04/ghosts-of-transfiguration-haunt-hamlet.html

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Denis Calvaert  (circa 1540 –1619) / The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane / & / 
Anonymous, David Takes the Spear and Water Jar from the Sleeping Saul and Announces the Theft / From Old Testament Miniatures / French (Paris), c. 1244 - 1254 / New York, Pierpont Morgan Library / MS M 638, fol. 34r / 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 

Claudius' Prayer Scene as Failed Agony in the Garden, & Hamlet's response as David Sparing Saul:

Claudius attempting to pray is like a failed agony in the garden:
In gospel, Jesus in this scene says "Thy will be done";
Claudius refuses to repent of his sins and says instead, "My will be done."

Hamlet in this scene is like a darkly transfigured David sparing Saul.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/hamlet-prayer-scene-ironic-clashing.html

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[L: Main scene of the wall hanging representing Uriah summoned by King David, fifth piece of the cycle of David and Bathsheba. Wool and silk tapestry with silver and gold thread, made in Brussels ca. 1510–1520. Via Wikipedia commons, public domain.
R: Nathan & David (catching the conscience of the king), Jacob Backer, c. 1633. Image https://www.pubhist.com/w7805]

Multiple King David, Uriah, & Bathsheba Echoes:

King David had Uriah killed to marry his wife, Bathsheba;
Claudius killed his brother to marry Gertrude.

King David sent a letter with Uriah that would bring about his death;
Claudius sent a letter with Hamlet & friends on their sea voyage to bring about Hamlet's death.

A younger David once pretended to be mad in order to escape trouble;
Hamlet pretends to be mad, supposedly to avoid suspicion.

A younger David spared Saul's life when he might have killed him (as mentioned in an earlier link, above);
Hamlet spares the life of Claudius at prayer so that he can kill him later when Hamlet is more certain that Claudius will go to hell.

The prophet Nathan tells King David a story about a shepherd to catch the conscience of the king after he has Uriah killed to marry Bathsheba;
Hamlet puts on a play for Claudius & Gertrude to catch their consciences after the ghost claims that Claudius killed his brother to marry Gertrude.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/09/hamlet-has-david-complex-freud-claimed.html

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Multiple Echoes of John the Baptist, Salome, & Herod Antipas:

Claudius married his brother's wife, as Herod Antipas married a brother's wife.

Claudius grants a wish to Laertes (to return to France, and later, to avenge his father's death), as Herod Antipas granted a wish to Salome.

Baptista: John the Baptist condemned the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's wife and was later killed for opposing incestuous marriage (as Hamlet, with his "prophetic soul," is killed).

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/11/hamlet-which-herod-which-baptista-in.html


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Jephthah Figures (Polonius & More)

From late 2020 through early 2021, I did a series of about 13 posts focused on Jephthah and Polonius. The more I researched and reflected on the Biblical Jephthah story in Judges 11, the more I realized that many characters in the play resemble Jephthah, who sacrifices his daughter on the altar of his ambition.
- Fortinbras is especially remarkable for the many subtle ways he resembles early aspects of the Jephthah tale.
- The series notes historical figures who, as some scholars have speculated, may have inspired the character of Polonius, and also the common association between Polonius as a Jephthah and Jephthah as a maker of unholy or rash vows.
- I also explore Jephthah as the marginalized son of Gideon and a prostitute, driven from his home and at first cut off from his father's inheritance by jealous half-siblings. Marginalization can be violent, literally or figuratively, and Jephthah passes on this curse by marginalizing his daughter to an extreme, by sacrificing her, a dark and twisted echo of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac (but in that instance, the sacrifice is stopped and the boy saved).
- This link is to post #12 in the series, containing the index and summaries for all posts in the series.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/jephthah-series-pay-attention-be-astonished-tell.html

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[Image: Paolo Veronese, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (ca. 1560). Malipiero Badoer chapel in San Francesco della Vigna. By Didier Descouens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35159332]

Hamlet as Priest, Prophet, & King:

All Christians (fictionally including Hamlet) are "baptized into Christ's death" to "die to sin" and "rise with him," dedicated to becoming more like Christ, sharing in his threefold office of priest, prophet, & king. Many fall far short of the ideal, but that's the goal.
PROPHET: Hamlet has a "prophetic soul" like Jonah (and has a similar sea-voyage: see above) and John the Baptist (who condemned a king's marriage to a brother's wife: see above).
KING: Hamlet acts most like a king when he proclaims at Ophelia's grave, "It is I, Hamlet the Dane," and after the sea-voyage, when he reconciles with Laertes and offers his dying voice to Fortinbras, perhaps as reparation for Hamlet's father having killed the father of Fortinbras.
PRIEST: He acts in a way similar to the self-sacrificing, "priestly" office of Christ when he is willing to risk his own life in the duel: "Let be"; "The readiness is all."


https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/09/hamlet-priest-prophet-king-part-1.html

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Ophelia's Prayer Book & the Annunciation of Mary

Katherine Goodland and Rubin Espinoza have observed that, when Polonius instructs Ophelia to pretend to read a prayer book while he and Claudius eavesdrop on Hamlet in 3.1, he seems to hope that Ophelia will resemble for Hamlet the image of Mary at the Annunciation, as depicted in art of the period. Medieval prayer books and renaissance paintings usually depicted the Virgin Mary reading a book of psalms when the angel appears to her to tell her she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit and carrying the one who will become Jesus.

This blog post explores this idea and offers multiple samples of images from paintings of the era and from medieval prayer books. Polonius wishes Ophelia to appear holy and pure as a deception, for he wishes to hide his dishonest plan to eavesdrop with Claudius.

Hamlet, on seeing Ophelia, says, "Nymph, in thy orisons [prayers] be all my sins remembered." Catholic personal devotion included the rosary, which repeatedly includes the Hail Mary (or in Latin, Ave Maria) with its request that the Virgin Mary intercede for humanity and pray for sinners: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners," a parallel to "be all my sins remembered."

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/05/ophelias-prayer-book-annunciation-of.html

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[Carracci, Annibale. 1560-1609 / The Holy Women at Christ’s Tomb / Italy, 1597-1598 / Image: HermitageMuseum.org.]

"Where's the Body" in Hamlet 4.3?:

In the gospel tale, the women want to know where they have taken the body of Jesus, because the tomb is empty.

In a dark ironic version or parody, Claudius, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern want to know where Hamlet has taken the body of Polonius.

Jesus survives his own death and empty tomb because he lives on in the "body" of the church;
in an ideal world, Christians live on in the "body" of those touched by their faith and good acts, and truly Christian kings live on in the good effect of their rule in the body politic.

But it's unclear whether Polonius has lived up to his own best advice, being true to his best self, or whether he has only sown seeds of doubt and suspicion, spying on his son, and doubting Hamlet's intentions and his daughter's love for the prince. For Polonius, it seems it's all about his ambition to serve the king, more than about advancing Jesus' vision of the kingdom of God on earth.

If Jesus lives on in his body, the church (or at least in those who best exemplify his teachings), what sort of "body" has Polonius left behind?

Where is the body?

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/10/wheres-body-in-hamlet-4-3.html

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Ophelia: "The false steward that stole his master's daughter":

A mad Ophelia says it was "the false steward that stole his master's daughter."

Scholars believe this references a sub-plot in a Ben Johnson play, where a steward steals the daughter of his employer and raises her as his own; later, it seems she may not be eligible for marriage to someone of higher birth, when in fact, because of her true parentage, she is worthy.

Others have found similar tropes in much older literature.

Hamlet's trajectory is from anxiety about commands from a vengeful father, toward a more merciful father ("Providence") and the memory of a positive emotional father-figure, Yorick. A heavenly father is Hamlet's true parentage, but he only finds and commits to this idea after it seems the pirates have acted for him as instruments of a merciful Providence.

Francisco of Assisi (possible allusion in sentinel name: see below) also finds a more true father in heaven after being estranged from an ungenerous father and renouncing earthly possessions.

If Ophelia feels her father Polonius and brother Laertes were acting as false stewards when they told her she was not worthy of a match with Hamlet, and if she is realizing that perhaps she was, in fact, worthy (perhaps by a truer, heavenly parentage), then perhaps Ophelia's allusion and insight foreshadows Hamlet's transformation after the sea-voyage and in the graveyard.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-false-steward-that-stole-his.html

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GETTING THE PRODIGAL WRONG IN HAMLET 1.3:

Polonius and Laertes both use the word "prodigal" when speaking to Ophelia in 1.3, but they use it to try to make her feel afraid for the loss of her virginity.

Yet the main point of the gospel story of the Prodigal Son is not fear, but the love, welcome, mercy, and forgiveness of the father for the child who had gone astray, but who later returned.

Hamlet and Laertes are clearly prodigal sons, who at first go astray in their pursuit of revenge, but later reconcile.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/getting-prodigal-wrong-in-hamlet-13.html

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TO HAMLET, “DELICATE & TENDER” ISN’T ABOUT GOOD STEAK:

Many scholars seem to think that Hamlet offers young Fortinbras a compliment by referring to him as a "delicate and tender" prince.

But when the phrase "delicate and tender" is used in the Bible, it's better paraphrased as "pampered and spoiled." Biblical references go on to say that people who are pampered and spoiled in such a way would, in hardship, eat their own children to survive if their city were under seige.

Or kill their brother, and later, their step-son/nephew, as Claudius seeks to do.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/11/to-hamlet-delicate-tender-isnt-about.html

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[L, Cyron Melville as Hamlet, and R, Oliver Alvin-Wilson as Horatio, Shakespeare Festival Denmark at Kronborg Castle, 2017] 

HAMLET: "FELL SERGEANT, DEATH" & MT 5:23-26:

Before dying, Hamlet tells Horatio that the "fell sergeant Death is strict in his arrest" (5.2).  Some assume that this is just an original metaphor: death is like a sergeant who eventually arrests (stops) us all, and is strict about it.

But in fact, the metaphor is borrowed from scripture:

In the gospel of Matthew (5:23-26), in the Geneva translation popular in Shakespeare's time, Jesus encourages people to reconcile, saying that if one is on the way to the temple to make an offering but has a problem with their brother or neighbor, leave the offering and first go reconcile with the brother. He offers the analogy: Settle debts quickly, lest the judge hand one over to the sergeant, who will throw one in jail until the last farthing is paid.

In the early modern mind, this sergeant may have been viewed as death, who places one in the "jail" of hell or purgatory, for punishment—and who is strict in his arrest.

Before Hamlet and Laertes die, they reconcile;
before Hamlet dies, he also gives his dying voice to Fortinbras in the election of the next king, perhaps setting right one of the sins that kept his father from heaven.

Perhaps setting right the sin-related damage that remains after people die is a better way to get one's parents and friends out of purgatory than paying money to have masses said for them?
And reconciling before it's too late?

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/02/hamlet-fell-sergeant-death-matt-523-26.html

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Some allusions below are to Christian saints not mentioned in the bible; as such, these would be considered by many as more Roman Catholic allusions than Protestant ones):

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THE GHOST OF VERONICA HAUNTS HAMLET (or, Did Gertrude Have a Veronica Complex?):

The gospel tale says Jesus greeted the women of Jerusalem on the way to the crucifixion;
Christian tradition (beyond the scope of the biblical texts) claims that a compassionate woman wiped Jesus' face, and the image of his face miraculously remained on the cloth.
Paintings of this scene were very popular in medieval and early modern Europe.

Hamlet is on his way to his death, and a compassionate woman, Gertrude, wipes his face with a handkerchief or napkin.

[This allusion to the Veronica tradition was also noted by David Kaula in "Shakespeare and the Archpriest Controversy: A Study of Some New Sources" and by others.]

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-ghost-of-veronica-haunts-hamlet-in.html

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ST. VALENTINE & CLAUDIUS in HAMLET:

One of the three martyrs known as St. Valentine (if there was actually such a historical figure) may have been martyred under the reign of a Roman leader named Claudius (or so it is claimed by tradition).

Ophelia mentions St. Valentine's day.
Hamlet is killed during the reign of a different Claudius (of Denmark).

Hamlet is her former love, perhaps her betrothed: Hamlet had made to her "almost all the holy vows of heaven," Ophelia tells her father, who at first disbelieves her; but Polonius later regrets and apologizes for having misjudged the prince.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/02/st-val-claudius-hamlet-ophelia.html




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[Left: St. Bernard. By Filippino Lippi - Web Gallery of Art. Image Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2059529
Right: Francis renouncing his earlthy goods and earthly father for a heavenly father: Giotto, 1297-1299. Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Assisi, Italy. Image Public Domain, http://www.the-athenaeum.org.}


Why Shakespeare probably named Francisco and Bernardo after Francis of Assisi & Bernard of Clairvaux (with more links): 

St. Bernard of Clairvaux
1. Bernard worked with an early King Henry of England to avoid a schism;
a later King Henry (VIII) would marry a brother's wife and cause a schism (via English Reformation).
2. Contrary to gospel admonitions to love enemies, but obeying his pope, Bernard preached a crusade to avenge alleged Mulsim offenses and regain the Holy Land;
Hamlet is torn about vengeance and its consequences for an afterlife, the "undiscovered country,";
3. Late in life, before their deaths, Bernard reconciled with Peter Abelard;
Hamlet and Laertes reconcile before they die).

Francis of Assisi1. Francis, after difficulties with an abusive father, found a better father in a merciful heavenly father.
- Hamlet, after difficulties fulfilling the ghost's command to avenge, finds a merciful father ("Providence") and remembers a kinder surrogate-father-figure (Yorick).
2. Francis called himself a fool of God.
- Hamlet is at times like a witty court fool, like his emotional surrogate-father-figure, Yorick ("a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.").
3. Francis, before his calling and visions, lost delight in earthly things;
- Hamlet: "Man delights me not, nor woman...."
4. Francis met with the Sultan of Egypt during a crusade in apparent violation of church authorities, but in harmony with gospel admonitions to love one's enemies;
- Hamlet similarly reconciles with certain enemies in the end (Laertes, Fortinbras).
5. Francis befriended Claire, who, with his help (and under better circumstances than Ophelia) got herself a nunnery.
- Hamlet tells Ophelia to get herself to a nunnery.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/03/scourge-minister-bernard-francis.html

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SHAKESPEARE, SUICIDE, & HOW NARRATIVE ARTS CAN HELP ADVANCE THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING:

Shakespeare showed more mercy to many of his characters in various plays who commit suicide than was characteristic of both Protestant and Catholic thinking of the time. Such literature may eventually have influenced a sea-change in theological thinking about suicide and the mystery of the victim's eternal fate.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/03/shakespeare-suicide-how-narrative-arts.html

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TO ASSUME, OR NOT TO ASSUME: Defamiliarization & Allusion in Shakespeare & the Bible:

We often assume we know what tales from Shakespeare and the Bible mean. But when the Bible alludes to a previous biblical tale in a new context, and when Shakespeare alludes to a biblical tale, this can create a kind of cognitive dissonance because of the possible clashing of stories and implications. Fresh juxtapositions like this may require of us a kind of defamiliarization, a letting go of our previous assumptions, as scholars like Julia Kristeva and Victor Shklovsky might say.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/03/to-assume-or-not-to-assume.html

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[David Tennant as Hamlet, 2009, directed by Simon Bowler]

Hamlet's Split Religious Personality:

Hamlet was in school at Wittenberg, associated with Martin Luther (associated with Protestantism) and Faust.

But the ghost seems to claim to be from purgatory, perhaps (as many have observed) a Catholic ghost.

To accept the word of the ghost would seem to require that a possibly Protestant Hamlet become more Catholic, believing his father's ghost was in purgatory.

Yet later, Hamlet doesn't want to kill Claudius at prayer because he thinks (like a Protestant) that Claudius might be forgiven at prayer without the sacrament of penance, administered by a priest (which the ghost seemed to think he needed before dying).

Hamlet, which side are you on? (Or is Hamlet, religiously, a free agent?)

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/06/hamlets-split-religious-personality.html

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[Darrel Guilbeau as Marcellus, Sean Pritchett as Horatio, & Matt Hurley as Bernardo, Hamlet, 2009, directed by Simon Bowler]

Horatio's Gift-Dynamics & Christ-Figures Shifting Ground in Hamlet 1.1:

Horatio is compared to a doubting Thomas regarding the ghost's appearance, but this implies that the ghost is like Jesus.

Later there is a shift: Instead of the ghost being like Jesus, the ghost is next compared to Peter who denied Christ three times before the cock crew. If the ghost, while alive, sinned in some way that denied Christ ("whatever you do to the least of these, you do unto me"?), then where was this Christ located who was denied by the king?

Still later, Horatio and the sentinels find that because the spirit will not speak to them, they should seek out Hamlet; this echoes a moment in the gospels when the disciples try to cast out evil spirits, but the spirits won't respond to them, so they seek the help of Jesus, who tells them that some evil spirits can only be cast out with much fasting and prayer.

So the location of Jesus in the allusions and analogies shifts from
- the ghost (in the Doubting Thomas analogy) to
- some unknown person or people who, like Peter, denied Christ three times (in the analogy of Peter's denials), to
- Hamlet (to whom Horatio and the sentinels think the ghost will speak, as the disciples believed spirits that would not yield to them would yield to Jesus).

It's instructive to note how fluid Shakespeare is in his allusive and anological practices, to shift analogies like this.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/11/horatios-gift-dynamics-christ-figures.html

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Why Gift-Dynamics Matter for Shakespeare & the Bible (with 15 more links, the end of a multi-part series):

In the fall of 2019, I did a series of 16 posts examining gift-dynamics in character interaction, including what Lewis Hyde calls labors of gratitude, and what I add, paraphrasing Hyde, as labors of regret. This was the last of 16 posts, a number of which received some of the most views of any of my blog posts.

Hyde says labors of gratitude can be transformative. Labors of regret (or reform, or repentance) can be as well.

If such elements are present in Shakespeare plays and other Early Modern plots, it's at least in part due to the fact that English law required all subjects to attend church every Sunday, and when they did so, they would hear in the language of the scriptures and the liturgy many references to human and supernatural gifts, as well as to regret and the repenting of harmful action.

So the study of gift-dynamics in character interaction is not a separate thing, but in fact very related to the study of Shakespeare and the influence of religion and the Bible.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/why-gift-dynamics-matter-hamlet-bible.html

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HAMLET'S BIBLE: My Book Project:

Since Charles Wordsworth's book in the mid-1800s, a number of major reference books like his have been published that attempt to catalog biblical references, allusions, or influences in Shakespeare's plays. These include works by Thomas Carter, Richmond Noble, Naseeb Shaheen, and a shorter work by Peter Milward about biblical influences in the tragedies.

But many of these (Wordsworth, Carter, Noble, Shaheen) seem to have Protestant and empirical biases that seek mostly to document instances of the words of The Word within Shakespeare's words.

More than explicit allusions alone, I hope to examine also biblical plot echoes (like some of them listed above) and to address the question my students have raised: Why are these biblical allusions and influences there, and what do they mean?

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/hamlets-bible-my-book-project-im.html